Enrile, Nograles to meet Friday to schedule nat’l poll canvass

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and House Speaker Prospero Nograles are set to meet Friday afternoon to discuss the possible early convening Congress as the National Board of Canvassers to proclaim the country’s new president and vice president. The Senate and House of Representatives are originally scheduled to convene as NBC on May 31, but calls for the early canvassing and proclamation snowballed with the speedy release of the automated results. [See: Monsod: Congress may convene early to canvass votes for pres, VP and Comelec urges Congress to set earlier canvassing for president, VP race] At the the weekly Senate news forum on Thursday, Enrile said that aside from the date of the national tally of votes, they would also discuss which document they would use for it — the electronically transmitted result or the certificate of canvass to be the submitted to them in a sealed envelope. Enrile said he prefers the latter as it is what is stated in the 1987 Constitution. "The Constitution says the opening of the certificates of canvass, meaning hard copy contained in a sealed envelope," he said. Delay Enrile also sees the delay in the submission of the COCs to the Senate as one of the problems the NBC would have to deal with. "All our ability to canvass the votes will depend on the submission of the COCs," he said. At present, only 43 of the 276 COCs have been delivered to the Senate. Most came from the overseas absentee voting and only two from provincial board of canvassers – Baguio and La Union. With this development, Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel Zubiri called on the Commission on Elections to speed up the delivery of the COCs. He said the results earlier released by the poll body showing Senator Benigno Simeon Aquino III and Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay leading the presidential and vice presidential races, respectively, were not from the canvassing of votes but consolidation of tallies from the election returns. "Those results were considered as authentic and accurate but that will not be the basis of the proclamation," Zubiri said. Another problem that Enrile sees is if they will be able to muster the quorum as most of the congressmen are still waiting for their proclamation. But Enrile assured that country’s new president and vice president will be proclaimed before June 30. He said if the COCs will not come in even after May 31, they will have no recourse but to open the electronically transmitted results. "The ball is now on the hands of the Comelec," Enrile said. — LBG/RSJ, GMANews.TV